Coffee break- EEE PC in the wild
Today was an exciting day as I was working in the Panera Bread and spotted someone actually using an EEE PC! She is a college student who bought the EEE PC for the low price and was tapping away doing a paper for school. Tapping is the definitive word as it was the little bitty one with a tiny keyboard and touch typing was not an option. She said it didn’t matter though as the cheap price made it possible for her to buy it, otherwise she’d be doing the work with pen and paper. Now that’s a real trooper and why the netbook is so important a product for students.
While I have been here working I have been using the T-Mobile G1 for email and generally playing with it and it’s captured some attention. I have noticed since I’ve been using it that the folks who approach and ask about it fall in two categories: geeks and regular people (non-geeks). I noticed this because the geeks who ask about the phone always ask "is that the G1?" and the non-geeks invariably ask "is that the Google phone?". This is almost without fail and shows the power of marketing. I don’t know what folks will call the next Android phone since it can’t just be the "Google phone".
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I’m also a student but I use a Samsung q1p to take notes, film my classes, and write assignments. The problem lies in price, when students in my classes asks me how much I paid for my it, they become disinterested because of price. The UMPC is the perfect device for college students but the fact that it was priced so high to begin with, played against it. This is where netbooks are really making a difference because they are all over campus now. Is too bad that so many people won’t know what a UMPC can do for them, and be stuck with netbooks to fill the gap.
Can’t touch type? Dang, I’m doing that right now on my eee 701. It’s not perfect but moving from my fullsize keyboard to this one only takes a couple minutes (the ‘ key gives me the most trouble).
If the 700 series had a decent battery time with the lid closed it would be a killer but I can’t just shut it and run like I do with my macbook without worrying about the battery life.
I even tried XP to get hibernate but that takes as long as a full boot and way longer to invoke.
James,
I think the price point of many of these devices is realy a huge selling point. But even though it sounds like a cliché, to many of my female friends the “purse-friendly-size” is by far the biggest plus. My gierlfriend actually does touch type on an eee 701 but then again she will be a pediatric surgeon and may thus have a odd fascination for all things tiny ;-)
And lastly I think that quite a few of us geeks are just too satiated with mobile devices to realy apreciate how great a tool even the puniest netbook can be to our more “under-mobilized” brothers and sisters…
I’ve never understood why so many people say the eeepc is not touch-typable. I have no problem at all on my 900 and, as a poster a coulpe up from me said, the only key that even sometimes gives me trouble is the ‘ key. Touch-typing on my Q1UP, however (which i managed to peck this response out on), is another story… ;)
Warner
An ‘EEE PC in the wild’ is newsworthy? I thought they and their netbook brethren are the runaway success of the season… so is it that shocking/surprising to actually see one out in their natural habitat?
For what it’s worth, sitting at a gate at Las Vegas airport last weekend, I saw some student-looking guy with a white EEE PC walk by, and then a “suit” passed me with an HP MiniNote (undressed) in his hands. All the while I was typing away on my own HP MiniNote…
I use my EEE for transcripting my interviews (I am a student doing research for my thesis). I actually like the small keyboard a lot for touchtyping (if that is what we call ‘blind’typing). Not much EEEs in the wild here though.
Why I like it: size and price.